MUMBAI: After Ishan Kishan smashed a 23-ball half-century inside the powerplay for Mumbai Indians to chase down 197 in 15.3 overs against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the left-handed wicketkeeper-batter said his splendid knock came after the realisation of about not putting himself under pressure due to things not in his hands.
Kishan had taken a break from the game after pulling out of India’s Test tour of South Africa last year and didn’t play a single game for Jharkhand in the Ranji Trophy. On Thursday evening, he slammed a 34-ball 69 and also had two catches taken behind the stumps to signal that he’s back to his prolific self.
"There's nothing like that I want to prove to someone. I just have to go there and enjoy it because I've learned that you don't have to put pressure on yourself about things that are not in your hands. The uncontrollable is there, and you have to figure out what is controllable and uncontrollable.
"If I had been batting earlier, if I had been the old Ishan Kishan, if they had been good bowling in the first two overs, he would have come under a little pressure. But with time, I have learned that 20 overs is a massive game. You can take that time. Again, you can believe in yourself and move forward," said Ishan in the post-match press conference.
Quizzed specifically about the T20 World Cup and Kishan said he wants to be in the present for now. "About the World Cup, it is not in my hands and I am taking things very easy right now. You have to take one match at a time. One needs to understand that a lot is not in the hands of the players. It’s a very big tournament and you do not want to overstep. I am just taking one game at a time and however I can help the team, let’s do it."
Kishan finally returned to competitive cricket in February when he played for Reserve Bank of India in the DY Patil T20 Cup in Navi Mumbai and spoke about the things which he did during his break from the game, apart from practising alongside Hardik Pandya in Baroda.
"I was practicing as well as I could. I had taken off and when you take an off, a lot of it is gets spoken about on social media. What we can do is that if you have taken time for yourself, use it the best way possible for yourself," he said.
Asked about his mindset during the chase, the wicketkeeper batter said, "At the Wankhede, whenever you play, and the wicket is good, you always look to score more than 200. It's not about scoring 220; if we have a good start, we look to get as many runs as possible. So that is the thing. You can't set a certain target for your team or yourself.
"You just have to keep batting or keep looking at the total and what other bowlers are doing. So you keep planning. If the wicket falls, the planning will change. If our partnership is good, the planning will be different. It's a different story for us right now regarding how we take this thing. Our plan is not to set a total for ourselves. Let's just look at the situation and play our best cricket."